Background: School violence is a significant public health concern. Most perpetrators exhibit psychosocial and behavioral warning signals which are often inadequately addressed. While policy and funding typically reinforce politically popular target hardening and threat assessment strategies, these are not most supported by research or requested…

Although residential school characteristics (e.g., smaller class sizes, the availability of remedial education, student-centered curricula, flexible scheduling) are tailored to better support students with challenges (Kleiner et al., 2002), these modifications alone may not be enough to improve the challenging behaviors that students in…

In recent years, schools have begun Social Emotional Learning (SEL) instruction. In 1994, the term Social Emotional Learning was coined by CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning; originally named the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning). SEL instruction is critical in schools because communities and…

The strict classroom control philosophy often adopted within public schools can have counterproductive effects on students, especially African Diaspora and Latinx students. Public schools should ideally provide quality instruction for all students. Unfortunately, teacher-centered practices reinforce stereotypes that African Diaspora and Latinx…

School discipline remains authoritarian in the USA despite the superficial adoption of student-centered, constructivist lesson delivery. The issue may be lack of ideas for how to conduct constructivist discipline. Three novel activities are presented for classroom discipline that may close this gap. All three present discipline in a manner that is…

Here is what our work uniquely brings to policy and planning tables: (1) An expanded framework for school improvement--We highlight that moving from a two- to a three-component policy and practice framework is essential for closing the opportunity and achievement gaps. (That is, expanding from focusing primarily on instruction and…

This qualitative study aims to determine teacher perspectives on learning responsibility and balance of power. The research design is case study which was conducted on four primary school teachers. The data were collected with semi-structured interviews and the data obtained were analyzed with categorical analysis, a type of content analysis. The…